1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recycling system applicable to OA (Office Automation) equipment and/or household appliances and more particularly to a recycling system applicable to end-use products containing plastics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is a common practice with a recycling system to recycle used products collected from the market and produce recycled products with the resulting recycled materials in accordance with a production plan. Today, importance is attached to material recycling that disassembles and classifies the subject of collection into materials and executes some processing with the materials in order to produce recycled materials. With such material recycling, it is possible to produce entirely new parts by selectively using the recycled materials and apply the new parts to new end-use products having improved or renovated functions.
Material recycling includes closed-loop material recycling that reuses recycled materials for products producible with materials belonging to the same field as the recycled materials and open-loop material recycling that applies the recycled materials to products producible with materials belonging to a field different from the recycled materials. It may safely be said that closed-loop material recycling is advantageous over open-loop material recycling in that it recirculates resources a plurality of times, i.e., allows the same recycled materials to be repeatedly used. A specific system for smoothly effecting closed-loop material recycling is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2002-336832.
As stated above, a subject of recycling collected from the market is disassembled and classified into materials. As shown in FIG. 6, when a subject of recycling collected from the market is equipment, a barcode or similar ID (identification) code is usually provided on the equipment and includes the name and date of production of the equipment, a product number, recyclable materials, colors thereof and so forth. A disassembling and classifying sequence is executed on the basis of such information read out of the ID code by a barcode reader or similar sensor.
However, the problem with the ID code scheme is that the collected equipment and even the ID code thereof is sometimes smeared or damaged in dependence on the conditions of use, preventing the sensor from accurately sensing the ID code. Although the ID code may be implemented as, e.g., a magnetic code in order to solve the above problem, a magnetic code increases the cost of the sensing system. In addition, marks or codes are often molded together with parts constituting the collected equipment, particularly parts formed of plastics, and should be identified by eye. Identification by eye, however, is apt to bring about errors.
Further, an operator usually must disassemble and classify collected equipment placed on, e.g., a floor or a work table while moving around the equipment in accordance with an operation sequence written in a manual, resulting in an undesirable work environment. In addition, the work performed while watching a manual lacks efficiency and accuracy.
Moreover, the production of recycled products is planned after the confirmation of the number of collected equipments, preventing collection from being effected on an application basis and therefore making it inefficient. Also, the production plan of recycled products is dependent on the collection of equipments and is also inefficient.